Bryan Hosts March Madness: A Faculty and Staff Charity Basketball Game

Written by Amanda Davis, Features Editor

Faculty and Staff played their way to victory during Bryan College March Madness on Mar. 21 in the Summers Gymnasium. March Madness was an event designed by Residence Life to build community and to gather donations for the Life Care Center and Blazing Hope Ranch. Two teams made up entirely of Bryan faculty and staff competed against each other in a one game with four quarters. Some of the players included President Dr. Mann, Director of Student Life Stephen Ricketts, and Arnold Resident Director Rebecca Bates. The event also featured a concession stand and booths containing information about the Life Care Center and Blazing Hope Ranch.

Haircuts do not usually happen during basketball games, but that was not the case with BC March Madness. Ethan Pollock and Max Foster, two Resident Assistants, made a bet to shave their heads during halftime if at least $500 was donated to charity. BC March Madness exceeded that goal and raised a total of $1500. Foster and Pollock followed through with their promise and shaved their heads in front of hundreds of students. 

Foster came up with the idea. He thought that shaving his head would be something that would provide a new incentive for donations. “My hair is not really something that I’m not attached to, and so, for a good cause, I was happy to shave it off,” Foster said.

Pollock originally was the first person who suggested that Residence Life host a faculty basketball game. Pollock said that his decision whether to join Foster and shave his head was ultimately determined by a coin toss during a planning meeting for the event. If the coin landed on heads, he would shave his head, and if it landed on tails, he wouldn’t. The coin landed on heads. “At first I was a little bit nervous, but then I was excited,” Pollock said.

David and Jo Haggard are Cofounders and the Executive Director and Clinical Director respectively of Blazing Hope Ranch, a program that ministers to female survivors of human trafficking. The Haggards said that they loved the energy of BC March Madness, and that they hope that students might be encouraged to volunteer.

“It’s always good to just be out, and to let people, even students, or anyone else that might not know about the issue, for them to learn about it and become more aware that it’s actually happening,” David Haggard said.

Timothy Hostetler is the Director of Education and Outreach at Life Care Center, a center that offers support and guidance through crisis pregnancies. Tim Hostetler enjoyed sharing about the center with Bryan students, and he hopes that students will realize how much of an impact they can make as a college student.

“Even if that’s coming to clean, it allows us to spend time with clients. I know they’ve raised a lot of money tonight, and that helps us purchase things for clients that wouldn’t be able to purchase things on their own,” Timothy Hostetler said.

Rachel Hostetler, an RA, helped plan much of BC March Madness. She has been helping plan this event since October 2022 with a group of eight other RAs, and she was very excited to see the large turnout for the charity game.

“We can kind of get in a bubble here, so we wanted to help break that bubble, and also bring students in and let them see their professors and their staff playing a fun game of basketball,” Rachel Hostetler said.

Amanda Davis is a sophomore communications major and creative writing minor at Bryan College. She is a Kansas City native and loves reading, writing and photography.